Atkinson v. State

Today a majority of this Court requires a trial judge under Article 38.23, V.A.C.C.P., to include a defendant’s requested instruction as to the admissibility of evidence in the jury charge even though the evidence was clearly admissible and the conditions upon which the defendant wanted the instruction were simply predicate questions to the admissibility of the evidence. To this proposition, I dissent.

At trial appellant requested that the following instruction, in its entirety, be included in the charge to the jury:

“You are instructed that under our law in order to be considered valid, a…